Join the club: Music-based childcare

The music teaching world is not intrinsically entrepreneurial. Teaching styles may evolve and new brands, methods and classes emerge but there exists a general expectation of working hard for the warm glow of bringing music to people's lives, rather than for recognition or financial reward.

Meet Amy Cunningham, winner of the NatWest Great British Small Business Entrepreneur Award 2017 and several other Businesswoman of the Year, Mumpreneur, Small Business and Music Education awards and nominations. When she held her first Strings Club Music Camp in Camden Town market in 2012, she had six students. At the end of the final concert, the parents asked when the next event would be and the rest is history: last year the Strings Club taught over 30,000 children aged 4 to 11 in 8 locations across London and the Midlands – it now has 50 team members.

‘I've always been entrepreneurial. I used to run an events company at university,’ says Cunningham. Having graduated from Birmingham University and the MMus course at Goldsmith's University, Cunningham was teaching the violin across London and working as a secondary school music teacher when she had the idea. ‘I saw the benefits of music making for children of all backgrounds – not just for their musicianship, but also for their well-being, as well as developing mathematics and language skills.’

The simple but brilliant concept behind the success of Strings Club Holiday Camps is not only what they offer children, but also what they offer parents – childcare, a multi-billion pound market that is growing quickly. ‘We're essentially music-based childcare,’ explains Cunningham. ‘I realised that there is a huge demand for childcare that is more than just sitting in a sandpit all day – something arts-based. A lot of parents are looking for music-based activities outside school that can develop their children's skills.’ This distinguishes Strings Club from other music education franchises – its sites are all Ofsted registered.

Thus the programme is presented to parents as a menu of benefits: ‘Your Child's Development is Key’. This breaks down to four areas: music-based skills and knowledge; communication and language; physical development; and personal, social and emotional development. ‘The children are developing their skills even in the playground at breaktime,’ says Cunningham, ‘Parents really appreciate that.’

Mornings at the camps are spent in small instrumental group lessons (in violin, guitar and ukulele), and afternoons in one of ten music-based creatively inspired workshops such as Performarama, Sounds and Colours, Imagination Station, Music in Motion. There's a concert at the end of every camp.

The appeal to kids goes beyond classical music. As part of workshop themes such as ‘Musical Heroes’ children sing music by George Ezra, David Bowie and Malian superstar Oumou Sangare. ‘We cover everything from reggae to folk to rock. We want children to go home and get their instruments out,’ says Cunningham, adding ‘That's more important than having a formalised classical approach.’

The initial summer camps grew to include term-time courses, one-to-one courses, online charity fundraising festivals and ukulele birthday parties. In September, Cunningham launched a new ten-week term-time online course.

If it sounds as if the programme is aimed at ambitious, wealthy parents (a week at a camp costs £250), Cunningham admits that it's not an option for everyone: ‘At the moment the areas are quite affluent – Hampstead, Brockley – but we do offer free places. I am passionate about offering this experience to children who wouldn't necessarily be able to come to these camps.’

Strings Club also works in primary schools, offering bespoke programmes based on the National Plan for Music Education. With her experience of working with music services, Cunningham saw the opportunity: ‘The lack of funding is abysmal. It has detrimental effects on children's wellbeing. Lots of schools don't have a music coordinator any more. That's why we set up the Music Support Service. From working for various primary schools for years I know what they want and don't want. We offer high-quality music learning and our communication with schools is good. We don't just book a teacher and let them go in for a whole year: we really work on the programming.’

With its exponential success, Cunningham decided to franchise the business in 2018, offering others the chance to run courses, parties and work in schools. Prospective teachers are offered packages of varying financial commitment. According to current figures, it's possible to make up to £64k a year just from running the Holiday Camps.

Franchisees receive two full days of training, a ten-step handbook and access to the operational calendar. How does Cunningham maintain quality control? ‘We only hire the best, so we have a very rigorous interview recruitment procedure where I get them to act like they're in front of a class. As an experienced teacher I know straight away who would be good enough to inspire a group of children.’

What sort of teachers work well in this environment? ‘Our teachers are good at reading people. A good teacher looks at every child and their body language, how they're listening and their behaviour. Sometimes if a child is misbehaving it's because they're bored. The worst teachers stick to their plans, the child gets bored and doesn't want to continue. I've seen that in teaching in general. It's about changing the dynamic constantly, and also having enough music with you – carrying around a selection so you can cater for everyone.’

Instrumental teaching doesn't follow any specific string method and although classes are often general music, teachers do get involved with technique: ‘We recommend a Practice Makes Perfect Time, which is when the teacher or course leader goes round all the children to see how they're doing. It might be something small, like changing their bow hold or if they're not holding the guitar properly, but even if they have a few minutes with that teacher every day, it makes a big difference.’

When the Coronavirus crisis hit, most musicians were paralysed with horror, but Cunningham's can-do spirit allowed her to respond quickly to turn the planned summer camps into government-sanctioned events: ‘As soon as the government said we were allowed, I had to pitch to all our venues and say we were safe, that we'd had a risk assessment and what our Covid policy was. All of them said “yes”, when they turned down other providers. I had three weeks to find a venue and staff, make sure it was safe, and adhere to the guidelines, which allowed 15 children per bubble.’

This flexibility and responsivity underlies the success of Strings Club. Listening to feedback offers continual growth, and for Cunningham, it also makes the hard work worthwhile: ‘We get so many lovely quotes and reviews from parents, for example, if a child is shy at the beginning and at the end of the week they stand up and announce what they're going to play. Or they've built better relationships. That's what keeps me going through the hard times.’

This is borne out on Facebook, where one of many similar posts states: ‘I can't recommend The Strings Club enough. I'm so glad to have found something so fun and creative for my little one to enjoy! And such variety each day too! All the children attending always look so happy and like they're having a whale of a time! It's a joy to see.’

The strapline of Strings Club is ‘We want to inspire children through music’, and it certainly seems that with hard work, vision, flexibility and a good dash of entrepreneurial spirit, Strings Club has even managed to make that into a lucrative business model.